JAMMU Tawi, Mar 22: Three more candidates filed their nomination papers on Friday for the Udhampur-Kathua parliamentary constituency, which goes to polls in the first phase of the Lok Sabha election on April 19.
With this, the number of candidates in the fray for the seat goes up to five.
Amit Kumar and Tilak Raj filed their nominations as Bahujan Samaj Party candidates and Swarn Veer Singh Jaral as an Independent candidate for the seat to the returning officer in Kathua, an official spokesperson said.
Sitting MP Jitendra Singh filed his nomination papers from the Udhampur-Kathua Lok Sabha constituency along with his covering candidate Prem Nath on Thursday.
The notification for the polls to this constituency was issued on Wednesday along with 102 seats in 17 states and four Union territories where polls will be held in the first phase.
The last date for nomination is March 27. Scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on March 28 and names can be withdrawn by March 30, he said.
The Udhampur-Kathua Lok Sabha constituency was once a stronghold of the Congress party.
In 2019, he won against Congress candidate Vikram Aditya Singh, the son of Congress leader Karan Singh. He won by a substantial margin of 3,57,252 votes. After a recent summary revision, the Udhampur-Kathua constituency now has over 16.20 lakh registered voters.
The Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted in five phases with voting in each of the five parliamentary constituencies to be held in a separate phase.
Polling in the five Lok Sabha constituencies will be held on April 19 (Udhampur), April 26 (Jammu), May 7 (Anantnag), May 13 (Srinagar) and May 20 (Baramulla).
The Ladakh Lok Sabha seat spread over Kargil and Leh districts will go to polls in the fifth phase of the polls.
